Mr. Yuan is Always Unhappy - Chap 54
CH54 – THE PRINCE’S CROWN
Edited by Yummers
Yuan Rui was extremely shocked. He only broke out of it when the director team called for everyone to get in place. He jogged over with his long legs and stood on the side that was furthest away from Tomas.
Did Zheng Qiuyang know about Tomas and Wang Chao’s respective positions? Since he’s so close with Wang Chao, he probably did…then Zheng Qiuyang must’ve been very mad all the times he’s commented about Tomas being so handsome.
Yuan Rui now regretted his words. Even as a veteran gay, he did not realize. It really was hard to accurately judge the people who went from straight to bi.
Fortunately, the event today was going to be solo so they weren’t put in teams. He was a little afraid to be on the same team as Tomas now.
Their location of recording this time was a tropical wildlife-themed park. The cast could all guess that they’ll be doing events related to animals, though none of them could guess the precise missions they were going to be given.
As they were passing the missions out, the director standing beside the camera asked, “Alright everyone, are there any animals you guys are particularly afraid of?”
Some said large animals, some said snakes, and some even said crocodiles. When it was Yuan Rui’s turn, he thought about it, then said, “I’m scared of large birds.”
Everyone was silent for a moment.
Yuan Rui hadn’t realized why everyone was silent, so he started explaining as he thought it was because no one else found large birds intimidating, “When I was a kid I would go to the countryside to play. I was pecked by big cocks and they chased me down. So after that, I get scared when I see birds with a sharp beaker.”
The director covered his eyes for a few seconds. He put his hand down to say, “Um, let’s do this bit again. Yuan Rui, say ‘birds’ instead of ‘large birds’, okay?”
Now Yuan Rui suddenly understood why everyone went silent. He replied awkwardly, “No—no need to… I’m not scared, not scared.”
Both the cast and production team laughed.
The director had eight pictures of different animals, each one represented a different mission. The cast can pick the animals themselves, but the mission itself would still be hidden. There were two girl guests in total today. Aside from the Taiwanese girl who was a regular cast member, there was another female singer there. The male casts let the girls pick first and they both took gentler animals. One picked a baby panda and the other picked a sika deer.
There was a flamingo in the remaining six pictures. Since Yuan Rui was the youngest of the regular cast, he was definitely going to have the last pick. He was getting a little nervous. What if no one wanted the flamingo? He really was scared of large birds.
The acting king took the flamingo and waved the picture at Yuan Rui with a tease-filled face, he commented, “I’ll be taking this huge—bird.”
Everyone laughed at Yuan Rui’s direction again; he got a little uncomfortable from it. Even if it was a funny mistake, they didn’t have to laugh at him this much, did they?
Tomas took the crocodile as the second to last to pick, leaving the elephant for Yuan Rui.
Since Yuan Rui still felt awkward from everyone laughing at him, he still hadn’t said a word by the time everyone received their mission. The Taiwanese girl came over to him and whispered to him, “Don’t be so nervous, we all know what you meant.”
Yuan Rui was moved by her comfort as he tried explaining, “I really didn’t mean it that way.”
The girl covered her mouth as she smiled, still whispering, “I mean, we all know you like them, of course, you wouldn’t be scared.”
Yuan Rui, “…”
The cast each went their separate ways. Some went to the vehicle tour area while some went to the pedestrian tour area. Yuan Rui needed to go to the elephant area that was in the deepest part of the bus touring area. Once he was separated from everyone else, he thought to himself in a low spirit, So everyone knew I was gay already?
As he thought, he wasn’t able to hide it from them. If Lingling-Jie were to find out, she’d say “You might as well be hanging right now.” again. What should he do?
He sat there with a troubled face. When he lifted his head, he saw the Korean cameraman filming him attentively. He gestured for him to stop filming for a moment and asked in English, “Ge, did you also know?”
The man nodded with a bright smile, “Yes.”
“…”
Yuan Rui felt even more melancholy then. His mind raced around for a while before he cursed out loud in Korean.
The Korean cameraman laughed in response.
When they arrived at the elephant spot, the director was already there; even Zhao Zhengyi was there as he sat there with an ice cream in hand.
Yuan Rui felt that it was very unfair as he complained to the director, “I want ice cream too.”
The director gave him the mission card then urged him, “Hurry, hurry. We don’t have much time left, I’ll get you some once we’re done here.”
Yuan Rui’s mission was to play tug-of-war with an elephant. He had ten chances and just needed to win once to complete the mission.
He looked at the friendly-looking elephant, and his mood instantly got a bit better. He caressed the elephant’s face, then stated with confidence, “I will definitely win!”
The tug-of-war tool was a three-centimeter thick wooden stick that was about one and a half meters long. The outside was coated with a layer of leather. The elephant curled its trunk around one end while Yuan Rui grabbed the other end, ready to compete with the elephant.
Yuan Rui held onto the stick as he smiled at the elephant, saying, “Good luck.”
The elephant raised his head a bit as if encouraging him as well.
Full of confidence, Yuan Rui used all his might to pull against the elephant. Due to how hard he pulled, he fell back and rolled dramatically several times.
In the end, he lost 0-10. He sat on the grass, not able to stand up. Both his butt and back felt numb from the number of times he fell. His palm was also red from all the friction, he could feel it burning and swelling.
The elephant raised its head proudly and trumpeted. Yuan Rui couldn’t help but chuckle, he pushed himself to stand back up to give it a hug.
While leaving the elephant area, the elephant continued looking at him, it seemed unwilling to part ways with Yuan Rui.
Yuan Rui also kept looking back as he left, tears were almost slipping out of his eyes. He had already walked quite a distance before he suddenly remembered something. He turned and ran back as he yelled, “Where’s my ice cream?!”
The female editors were falling over from laughter. They all liked him so much, there were countless times in which they were saddened by the fact that the other was gay, leaving them with absolutely no chance.
Yuan Rui ate his ice cream as he returned to the starting point; two other guests were already there. He asked about each of their missions curiously. The female singer who picked the deer had to take a picture with the deers, but all three deers had to be looking at the camera in the shot, so it was mainly luck-based. The other was a male cast who picked the lion. He originally thought it was going to be a vicious mission, but it was just feeding milk to some lion cubs, so it ended quite fast.
Yuan Rui looked at the lion cubs’ pictures, squealing, “They’re so cute!”
The guy asked back, “What did you do?”
Yuan Rui replied in all honesty, “I had to play tug-of-war with an elephant, I couldn’t do it.”
The other two looked at each other, then both laughed.
Yuan Rui was bewildered. Was it really that funny?
Then, everyone else came back one after another. Somehow, everyone aside from Yuan Rui had succeeded.
Tomas’ crocodile mission should’ve been the hardest. He needed to use bait to lure a small crocodile to the shore for the zookeepers to give them a checkup. Although they had professionals on the side, it was still very dangerous. One would need to be very bold and have quick reflexes in order to succeed.
Yuan Rui heard the details from the side and was completely astonished. He seriously realized how blind he’d been, how could someone so assertive be a bottom?
That afternoon, they moved the filming location to the themed hotel area and started the main mission.
“Today’s mission is The Prince’s Crown. The black swan prince who lives in the swan pond has lost his crown. Without the crown, he could no longer be a prince. The thief is an animal who resides within this park.” The director narrated the setting, “The prince humbly asks for everyone’s assistance in capturing the thief. The person who is able to retrieve the crown will be bestowed the swan pond’s most precious treasure as a reward. The seven people who completed their missions this morning will get a clue that will direct you guys onto the next step.”
Yuan Rui quickly raised his hand, asking, “Director, what do I do?”
The director replied, “Take a guess.”
Everyone else laughed.
Yuan Rui, “…”
While everyone received a clue to continue onto the next step, Yuan Rui looked around him, completely lost. He followed after the Taiwanese girl, asking, “What are we supposed to do?”
The girl quickly sprinted away from him as she said, “I’m not telling you!”
He turned to ask the acting king instead, “Ge! I beg you! Just tell me!”
The acting king replied leisurely, “Oh, Xiao Yuan, you gotta think about it more. This is a solo competition, do you really think I’m going to tell you?”
No one was willing to share their clue, so Yuan Rui sat on the first-floor stairs alone. Everyone else had something to do, except for him. He felt so sad for himself; the production team was so mean.
After sitting there for a while, he decided that he couldn’t just sit and wait. Since the movie had so many sponsors and so much money poured into it, the reward at the end was definitely going to be valuable. He’s gotta put up a fight for it.
He was quickly re-energized as he thought encouraging things. He walked around, sneaking peeks at other people’s actions.
However, everyone was doing something different. Some were moving things upstairs, some were looking around for stuff, and some were playing ping pong with each other. He wasn’t able to get anything from those who were moving and finding stuff, but he could probably get a clue from those who were playing ping pong. He quickly grabbed a paddle to stand on the side and wait.
The two who played against each other kept playing, and playing, and playing.
Yuan Rui’s eyes were getting tired from idly watching. He couldn’t help but ask, “Are you guys going to play until the moon comes out?”
The other two were actually super exhausted already. One of them threw their paddle aside and said, “If you weren’t here staring at us, we would’ve been done a long time ago!”
Yuan Rui started to understand a bit. The two must be doing some kind of mission that couldn’t be seen by him. He put down the paddle bitterly, then left.
As time passed, Yuan Rui had helped the female singer move a box from the first-floor to the third-floor, he had helped the acting king get an envelope from the ceiling, and even put away the lights for the crew. All in all, he didn’t allow himself to rest.
It was finally getting dark out.
After spinning around like a headless fly for over half a day, Yuan Rui thought to himself, it’s almost over, right? He wanted it to end soon since there was no way for him to win.
It had been an unlucky day. He couldn’t get the stick or find any clues about the mission. This was going to be in theaters around the Spring Festival, making him a public embarrassment during such a big holiday. Not only would Lingling-Jie scold him, but Fang Shiqing would also laugh at him. Those antis as well, they’d definitely say “he’s getting dumber year by year.”.
He was extremely dismayed. Yesterday, he even told Zheng Qiuyang he’d work hard on this film. Although this was destined to be a bad movie for sucking in money from the fans, he predicted that it would at most get a 3.0 rating. However, he still wanted to try his best to do well. But what has today been?
He even told Zheng Qiuyang he was definitely going to be busy today and won’t have time to text him. In the end, he was almost falling asleep when he messaged Zheng Qiuyang in shame. “I’ve made such a fool of myself today.”
Zheng Qiuyang: “What happened?”
Yuan Rui: “Everyone completed their mission, except for me. The production team wouldn’t give me a clue.”
Zheng Qiuyang: “Then why don’t you look for them?”
Yuan Rui: “Only the crew has it, you can’t find it.”
Zheng Qiuyang: “Then steal someone else’s!”
Yuan Rui: “How can I do such a thing?”
Zheng Qiuyang: “[dog]”
Yuan Rui: “[pout]”
Zheng Qiuyang: “What are you doing right now?”
Yuan Rui: “Having a cold drink.”
Zheng Qiuyang: “Is it good?”
Yuan Rui: “Yep, the coconut juice is refreshing. Super delicious.”
Yuan Rui: “[image]”
Zheng Qiuyang: “That looks pretty good, I want it too.”
Yuan Rui: “I also had Wenchang chicken for lunch, it was also super delicious, tender, and tasty!”
Zheng Qiuyang: “You’ve gained some fat from this Haina trip huh [perverted]”
Yuan Rui: “[shy]”
He’d forgotten the distress he felt from earlier. He drank his cold drink as he exchanged sweet texts with his boyfriend.
A light whistle rang beside him, Yuan Rui turned around to see Tomas waving at him from a corner. Yuan Rui walked over in confusion, asking, “Can I help you?”
Out of nowhere, Tomas took out a vibrant-colored, rectangular handkerchief and tied their wrists together securely.
Yuan Rui, “…”
Tomas smiled, saying, “Yuan-Ge, you’re mine now.”
Yuan Rui was about to pass out from excitement. He’s so hot, he’s so hot, he’s so hot. I’m gonna faint!
